STJI Blog

The surgery and dental week is underway and we are anticipating treating at least 30 children and young adults in surgery and about 200 more in dental. Our second week team was welcomed to the hotel in Guatemala with pouring rain and an intense thunderstorm.

On Sunday morning, the operating room and dental clinic were up and running early. Our first group to arrive for dental care came from the Casa Gloria Children’s Home and then the next came from the Pampur School, the school we installed a water system in last spring.

One patient, 17-year-old Gloria, came in for her final surgical procedure after coming to the clinic for each of the past four years. Gloria had a successful operation to help her speak and eat better. Her aunt Ana, who’s been coming with Gloria and delivered her baby with help from STJI team members, got emotional when she thought about not seeing the team again now that Gloria’s operations are done. Jackie told Ana that she and Gloria are our family and we look forward to them coming to visit us anyway.

Our water team went back to the Paniste School and walked through the procedures of filling and purifying the new tanks with the teachers and administrators there. We also brought over some bars of soap for the new sinks at the school and reinforced our hygiene lessons of using water and soap when washing hands.

A few of our team members have been feeling a little bit under the weather, but at least they’re surrounded by a lot of medical professionals who have been able to help them get back to feeling normal. We welcome your prayers for the team’s health for the rest of the trip.